1. Harry Brakmann Helmsley was an American real estate billionaire whose company, Helmsley-Spear, became one of the country's biggest property holders, owning the Empire State Building and many of New York's most prestigious hotels.
10 Facts About Harry Helmsley
1. 2.
Harry Helmsley was the son of Henry Helmsley, a wholesale dry goods buyer, and the former Minnie Brakmann.
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Harry Helmsley was born in Manhattan and brought up in The Bronx, attending Evander Childs High School, where he did not graduate.
4.
Harry Helmsley invested in large residential properties including Park West Village on Manhattan's west side, Tudor City on the east side, and in Fresh Meadows in Queens and Parkchester in the Bronx.
5.
When Harry Helmsley sold the business in 1995, the company managed 128 buildings.
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Harry Helmsley became known as the most influential real estate magnate in the city.
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Harry Helmsley's success was attributed largely to a gift for salesmanship, a willingness to delegate authority, and a less-usual acquisition policy of long-term fixed-rate mortgages during a slump and cash purchases when interest rates were low.
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Harry Helmsley was a high-profile manager, dynamic but abrasive, and she demanded a luxurious lifestyle, quite unlike the modest private life he had been living until then.
9.
Harry Helmsley died of pneumonia at age 87 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, and left all of his empire to his wife, Leona.
10.
Harry Helmsley's remains were initially entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, but later moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.